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Winston-Salem, NC

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Composite score across cost, rent, crime, wages, schools, childcare, and environment — sourced from seven federal agencies.

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Ranked #4 of 387 metros · Top 99%

C+
69.8
out of 100

Reading the Winston Life Score

Winston's composite score of 69.8 out of 100 — earning a grade of C+ — places the metro at rank #4 of 387 in the national file, inside the top 99%. The composite is a weighted roll-up of seven dimensions: Cost of Living (20%), Wages (20%), Rent (15%), Safety (15%), Schools (10%), Childcare (10%) and Environment (10%), each normalized to a 0-100 percentile scale. The strongest inputs are Environment (98/100) and Rent (97/100), which pull the composite upward, while Wages (36/100) and Childcare (57/100) drag it downward. Because the weights are fixed, a metro that scores high on the 20%-weighted cost and wage dimensions can absorb mediocre scores elsewhere and still land a high composite — and vice versa.

Under the cost layer, BEA Regional Price Parities read 92.0 for Winston — 8.0% below the U.S. average, with rent-specific RPP at 71.4. BLS wage records do not match this metro in the latest OES cycle. HUD's 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent for the metro comes in at $960/mo (studios $816/mo), the figure that governs housing-choice voucher payment standards and anchors the rent sub-score.

Safety is scored from FBI UCR at the state tier (NC), which reads 365 violent crimes per 100,000 residents and 1930 property crimes per 100,000 — state-level crime always overstates rural-county risk and understates urban-core risk inside a single metro, so the safety score should be read as a regional baseline, not a street-level reading. School quality rolls up from NCES at 16.4:1 statewide student-teacher ratio with 7.6% charter share — a structural signal, not a performance measure. Childcare uses DOL center-based infant cost of $9,487/yr, a line item that can shift a household's real cost-of-living picture more than headline RPP. Environment draws on EPA records including 42 Superfund sites tracked for NC. Compared against ranks #1 through #7 in the table below, Winston's position is driven by the dimension weights above — not by any single metric — which is why the radar and sub-scores are worth more attention than the composite.

Score Breakdown

Cost of Living Wages Rent Safety Schools Childcare Environment

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 62/100 (20%)
Wages 36/100 (20%)
Rent 97/100 (15%)
Safety 92/100 (15%)
Schools 62/100 (10%)
Childcare 57/100 (10%)
Environment 98/100 (10%)

Top Strengths

1
Environment
98/100
2
Rent
97/100
3
Safety
92/100

Areas for Improvement

1
Wages
36/100
2
Childcare
57/100
3
Schools
62/100

Key Data Points

92.0
Cost Index (RPP)
$960
2BR Fair Market Rent
365
Violent Crime/100K (NC)
16.4:1
Student-Teacher Ratio
$9,487
Infant Childcare/yr (NC)
42
Superfund Sites (NC)

Crime, schools, childcare, and environment data shown at state level where metro-specific data is unavailable.

Compare Winston With...

Winston vs Greenville Compare → Winston vs Rocky Mount Compare → Winston vs Hickory Compare → Winston vs Wildwood Compare → Winston vs Waterloo Compare → Winston vs Paducah Compare →

Ranking Context

Winston is in the top 99% of U.S. metros. Here's where it falls in the national rankings.

Rank Metro Score Grade
#1 Paducah, KY-IL 70.0 C+
#2 Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA 71.5 B-
#3 Wildwood-The Villages, FL 71.6 B-
#4 Winston-Salem, NC 69.8 C+
#5 St. Cloud, MN 69.5 C+
#6 Wheeling, WV-OH 68.2 C+
#7 Sioux City, IA-NE-SD 66.7 C+

Similar-Scoring Metros

Wildwood-The Villages, FL B- 71.6 Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA B- 71.5 Paducah, KY-IL C+ 70.0 St. Cloud, MN C+ 69.5 Wheeling, WV-OH C+ 68.2 Sioux City, IA-NE-SD C+ 66.7

NC Metro Scores

Greenville, NC C+ 66.6 Rocky Mount, NC C+ 65.8 Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC C 63.4 Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC C- 59.2 Pinehurst-Southern Pines, NC C- 58.6 Fayetteville, NC C- 58.0

Explore Winston Data

Cost of Living Details
BEA Regional Price Parity breakdown
PlainCost →
Salary Data
BLS occupation wages for Winston
WageDex →
Fair Market Rents
HUD rent data for Winston
PlainRent →
Relocation Guide
7-dimension relocation intelligence
PlainRelocate →
Crime Rates
FBI UCR safety data
PlainCrime →
Schools
NCES school data near Winston
PlainSchools →

Planning a Move to Winston? Get the Full Relocation Guide

This Life Score page compares Winston on schools, crime, rent, demographics, and climate — useful when shortlisting metros side-by-side. Once Winston is on your shortlist, the next layer of decision-making is cost of living, move-in checklist, climate exposure, and 7-dimension relocation intelligence (career, healthcare, lifestyle, infrastructure). PlainRelocate covers exactly that, with the same 387-metro coverage and matching slug — start with the Life Score here, then drill into relocation specifics there.

Get the full relocation guide for Winston on PlainRelocate →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the life score for Winston-Salem, NC? ▼
Winston-Salem, NC has a composite life score of 69.8 out of 100, earning a grade of C+. It ranks #4 out of 387 U.S. metro areas. This score is based on 7 dimensions: cost of living, wages, rent affordability, safety, school quality, childcare costs, and environmental quality.
What are Winston's biggest strengths? ▼
Winston's strongest dimensions are Environment (98/100), Rent (97/100), Safety (92/100). The environment score is particularly strong, placing the metro in the top tier nationally.
What are Winston's weakest areas? ▼
Winston's lowest-scoring dimensions are Wages (36/100), Childcare (57/100), Schools (62/100). The wages score is notably below the median, which significantly impacts the overall composite rating.
How expensive is Winston compared to the national average? ▼
Winston has a Regional Price Parity of 92.0, meaning it is 8.0% less expensive than the national average. Rents are indexed at 71.4.
How is the life score calculated? ▼
The life score is a weighted composite of 7 dimensions: Cost of Living (20%), Wages (20%), Rent (15%), Safety (15%), Schools (10%), Childcare (10%), and Environment (10%). Each dimension is scored from 0 to 100 based on national percentile rankings using official U.S. government data from BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, and EPA.

Research Guides

How to Compare Cities
Framework for choosing where to live
What Metro Data Tells You
Understanding government statistics
Remote Work Relocation
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Data-Driven Relocation
Using government data for your move
Compare this metro → Full rankings → Life Score methodology →

Data from BEA, HUD, FBI UCR, BLS OES, NCES, DOL, and EPA. Not affiliated with the U.S. Government.

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Data sourced from $official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCompare Editorial

Disclaimer: This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Data is sourced from BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, and EPA. Consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on this data.

Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

All federal data sources used on this page